PITHAULI, Nepal (Reuters) – In the village of Pithauli, surrounded by ripening mustard fields, a woman hauls a cow carcass on a trolley, drops it in an open field, then runs and hides in a nearby hut as dozens of vultures swoop down.

In under half an hour, the carcass has been reduced to picked bones by the dun-colored birds, occasionally squabbling as they feed.

SHAKTIKHOR, Nepal (Reuters) – Nepal’s Maoist former rebels shed their camouflage uniforms Friday and began leaving their camps to join their families in a first step to their reintegration five years after the end of a civil war.

The rehabilitation of more than 19,000 former rebels is seen as crucial for the stability of the nascent Himalayan republic wedged between India and China.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Nine-year-old Bhintuna sat smiling in jewellery and a red and gold brocade bridal dress as she held a tray of offerings, waiting for her turn to take part in the ritual that would wed her to a god.

The schoolgirl is just one of hundreds of Nepali girls set to take part in the rite that weds them to the god Vishnu over the coming month, a symbolic time of weddings according to tradition in this deeply religious, majority Hindu nation.

BARAHBISE, Nepal (Reuters) – Looking at the swirling grey waters of the Bhote Koshi River, Ratna Kaji remembers when it turned into a “monster,” leaving behind a trail of death and destruction.

“It came down roaring, washed away homes and people when they were sleeping,” the 77-year-old said of the 1996 flood, caused by a massive landslide that blocked the river which eventually gushed out by breaking its mud wall.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Nepal has detained 90 Tibetan exiles for illegally entering the Himalayan republic, police said on Friday, in the latest crackdown on Tibetans carried out shortly before a reported visit by the Chinese premier.

Kathmandu police chief Rajendra Shrestha said the refugees were held at Thankot on the outskirts of Kathmandu late on Thursday, while they were travelling in buses coming from India.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Maoist-led Nepal will cut perks to former King Gyanendra and his family, a Supreme Court official said on Friday, three years after the Himalayan nation abolished the centuries-old monarchy.

A specially elected assembly dominated by the Maoist former rebels overwhelmingly voted to topple the 239-year-old monarchy in 2008 and turned the desperately poor country into a republic.

KATHMANDU, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Hundreds of former
Maoist fighters dressed in camouflage uniforms queued up in
Nepal on Saturday for interviews to determine whether they
wanted to join the army or re-enter civilian life, five years
after the end of a civil war.

More than 19,000 former rebels have lived in camps since the
decade-long conflict ended. Their fate is seen as crucial to the
stability of the republic, wedged between India and China, and
has been a major sticking point in the subsequent peace process.

KATMANDU (Reuters) – A Tibetan exile in Nepal set himself on fire on Thursday, police said, the latest of a wave of Tibetan self-immolations, mainly in China, protesting Beijing’s controls on their religion and culture.

The protestor, whose name is unknown, was carrying a Tibetan flag and chanting “Long live Tibet” before setting his clothes alight in Baudha, a prominent Tibetan area of Katmandu, police officer Shyam Lal Gyawali told Reuters.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – About 2,000 foreign hikers have been trapped in bad weather on the slopes of a mountain near Mount Everest in a remote corner of Nepal for the past four days, officials said on Friday.

They have been forced to stay in the small hill resort of Lukla, the gateway to Mount Everest, which has been covered by thick clouds this week, forcing airlines to cancel flights to and from the remote region.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Nepal’s political parties have agreed to integrate one-third of 19,600 Maoist former fighters into the national army, a move that could boost a flagging peace process after a decade of civil war.

The future of the Maoist fighters is key to the stability for a country that is courted by neighbours India and China as a geopolitical ally. How to treat those fighters was a major sticking point in the peace process, which ended the civil war that killed more than 16,000 people.